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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

ON Friday September 28 (7th?) I got up to catch my flightto the CADANCE Festival in Laguna Beach, California. Ihad not planned on calling a car because I figured Iwasn't travelling with too much so it would be easy tocatch a cab. Unfortunately, the weather was not socooperative. When I walked outside it was rainingheavily and the wind was really blowing strongly. Justgetting to the corner of my street to hail a cab left mesoaked. When I got to the airport, George was not thereyet and the lines were long. George called me on hiscell and he and his friend showed up about 5 minuteslater. We made our way through the line and George and I checkedin, the baggage rules have changed for domestic traveland even after planning we had to pay a large fee to getthe Spartacus tent and costumes on the flgiht. The threeof us got on the flight to Dallas and then George and Icaught a connecting flight to Laguna Beach.

When the plane flew over Laguna I was struck by theincredible beauty of the area. It has clear blue skies,impressive mountains and its by the Ocean. We werepicked up at the airport by one of the volunteers for theFestival. As we waited for our bags the guy walked rightup to me and said you must be the dancer I am lookingfor. He said George and I stood out which is why heapproached us. I don't know if thats a good thing.

He drove us to a vacation cottage by the beach, our homefor the next few days. The cottage was really charmingwith two bedrooms

and a living room

and completelydecorated in americana; quilts, antique dolls, antiquefurniture, it was very confortable and inviting.

We had the first night free so we just releaxed.

The next morning we got up early for class and a dress rehearsal.The class though had been cancelled and so we were leftto explore for an hour before we had our dress rehearsal.We walked around the city and watched a master classbeing given to students by one of Trey McIntyre's dancers

before returning to meet with the very talented stagemanager and lighting designer. They made our rehearsalsreally quick and easy. After we returned back to rest atthe cottage. We went back to the theater and we wererunning late so we hurried on to the stage where all thedancers from the other companies were already gathered.I could see curiousity cross the faces of several of thedancers as we entered since we didn't really know most ofthem.

I recognized Marcello Gomez from open classes inNew York and he was very nice inviting me to stand nearhim.

I left class a bit early, I was worried about notbeing ready in time. I was out of practice getting mymake-up on and preparing myself for the stage so Idecided it was best to be cautious and take an extra bitof time. I took a few minutes to go back in and rehearsethe last lift in Spartacus with George before returningto getting ready. The theater was an intimate space withfew dressing rooms so all the male dancers were set upoutside in a tent to get ready. I made the mistake ofthinking that California would be hot and in fact it wasvery cool outside and I had not brought any warm danceclothes with me because of the weight restrictions on theflight. My legs and back tightened up as I got ready. Itsalways a bit odd when you are applying your make-up andchanging into your alter ego and are surrounded bydancers who have never seen a male ballerina get ready.I noticed several people eyeing me as I applied my eyeshadow and lipstick. They tried to politely stealglances my way. I'm sure they thought I was odd.

I made a second mistake which was wearing very soft pointe shoes.

Spartacus went fairly well the first nightbut both my legs cramped from the cold and the softshoes. It was not one of my best performances. I wassmart enough to change my pointe shoes for the Dying Swanand was able to do a better job with that. Because of thefeathers falling, I had to add a whole bit where I sweptthe stage of feathers after the bows which was very funand seemed to be taken well by the audience. Alot ofthe dancers were in the wings for both pieces we did,they were really supportive and once they saw us performwe had made many new friends. After the performance a sitdown dinner and fundraising event was held by thefestival. It was held outdoors with live music under thestars. George and I were almost the last to leave. Thesecond days performance went much better for us. Achiropracter was backstage and he fixed me so that I felt100 percent for the performance. The audience the secondnight also seemed to know what to expect and we recieveda huge ovation.

After the second show we had anothergreat party with the dancers and with Jodie Gates thedirector of the festival to celebrate

(This is a terrrrible picture of me at the party with Jodie, by the way Ari is named after Jodie Gates and Pearl Lang)

George and I spent an extra day in Laguna walking on the beach andmeeting with Lars, a friend of Paul (Boos). Lars hadvisited us in Japan and travelled with the company for afew weeks.

That evening we were invited to dinner withone of the board members who treated us to a home madedinner. The return home was not quite as pleasant. It began withour flight being cancelled. George was planning onreconnecting with his friend in Dallas and flying to JFKbut the only flight they could put us on was through SanFrancisco and to Laguardia. We explained that George wasplanning on being picked up at JFK by family and thatarrangements had already been made. The airline saidthey couldn't do anything for us but they would upgradeus. We discovered that meant that they upgraded ourboarding priority only. Needless to say, George was nothappy. It was not a great note to end such a great tripbut we did make it home safely.

For those of you were wondering,

I had already made plans to be a part of this festival before I

announced my retirement in Japan. I have not totally decided whetherI will perform in special performaces but I do want tothank everyone for supporting me throughout my career.I enjoyed my retirement performance in Japan and willtreasure it but I will also treasure this performance asI shared the stage with fellow dancers from a variety ofimportant dance companies and reconnected with acommunity of dancers one last time.

Maria Ricetto (Soloist from ABT, originally from Uruguay and me after the second show) one of the many new friends I made.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Hey everybody, The last two years have been incredibly busy and I have lost track my diary/blog. The 200 performances in basically a year and a half in over 100 cities was in a word "Exhausting". Some of the big news is that I decided to officially retire. What this means is that I will not be dancing at the same level as I did, especially in Japan. I might perform for a special show here and there but it is sadly time to put that part of my life behind me. I had two extraordinary events to share with you.My final Gala Performance in Japan and a guest performance in California at a festival.

The final Gala was set for the Last Day of the Japan "Recipe for Laughter tour 2008". I've seen many retirements and tried to base mine on what I have seen. I have seen some done with great videos and retrospectives and with many dancers performing all the special roles associated with the person retireing and I have also seen versions where basically the retiring ballerina dances everything and people wonder if there is an ambulance waiting for her at the end of the show. I like the second because you really get to see the ballerina slowly deteriorate over the evenings performance and it is an apt comment on a dancer's career. I opened the evening with a role that I have dancing for 18 years, Odette in Swan Lake Act ll. Although this was not what I consider my first major role, that was Medora in Corsaire, It was a role that was the most important in the Male Comedy Ballet repetoire. It is a role I never tired of and always had challenges for me. I will miss Odette, she was a fun character to play because there was so much room for interpretation and so many technical challenges. For the curtain call I was surprised by Paul Boos, my friend and the ballet master presenting me with a dozen roses on stage. I actually choked up because it was completely unexpected. The second act opened with Pas De Quatre. It is a ballet that was set with the 4 greatest ballerinas of the time. I thought it was fitting to cast the 4 dancers in Grandiva who have the most seniority. Allen, Oswaldo, Me and Bart. This was Bart's first performance in pas de quatre and the role he performed was also performed by the youngest star of the time. Bart was the youngest of the four of us and his inclusion infused excitement into the ballet for the audience and the cast. I continued with Spartacus pas with George. This is probably the last duet that my career has been associated with. It was fitting to include this ballet because it represents a huge departure from what Male Comedy Ballet was like 20 years ago. It is a ballet that uniquely represents Grandiva and me personally. This ballet is deceptively difficult. Actually George and I have attempted to teach this ballet to other casts but have not been successful. I have hope that we will be able to pass this ballet to another generation because as a choreographer I think this is one of my best duets. I closed the second act with The Dying Swan. When I first performed this ballet it was based on the idea that sometimes this short solo is done in its entirety for a curtain call. I first added one extra run of the ballet with a different ballerina and then decided too extend that to two extra ballerinas. When I thought of this idea I thought listening and watching the same rendition 3 times would be too much for the audience so I decided to make the third version, my version, really a slapstick version with a special recording. Just between you and me, I also thought the other dancers doing the role were much more elegant physically and so I thought it would be better for me to concentrate on comedy. From a comedic standpoint I think Dying Swan is probably one of the funniest things in my rep and so I felt I needed to include it.The evening ended with a special version of Minkus Gala. I wanted to do something different with this ballet since we do it so regularly and we changed all the solos in the middle to give dancers an opportunity to dance either a role that was new to them or one that was associated with them. I also wanted to be able to dance with all my male partners, Tetsushi, Momchil, Oswaldo and George. I did miss dancing with Baris :(, but I couldn't fit anything else in without exhausting myself to the point of injury. I did dance Carmen with Baris on the last regular performance of the season so....for those of you who travelled to see that one thank you. Momchil and I danced Sleeping Beauty, and Oswaldo and I danced Star Spangled Ballerina a ballet that was created for me. The final curtain calls were a show all by themselves. It was overwhelming for me. The huge numbers of bouquets of flowers and all the tears from the fans (at a comedy show!) were touching and a bit hard to handle for me. The dancers presented me with a diamond ring to remember them and the evening by. I will cherish it and all the years I have danced professionally starting at Ballet Florida in 1983 to my last official performance with Grandiva in 2008

About Me

Mr. Trevino, the founder and former artistic director of Les Ballets Grandiva and current director of Les Ballets Eloelle, Men in Tutus and Men in Pink Tights, has created various works for the company including Romeo and Juliet, Le Petite Nutcracker Suite, Spartacus, Swan Lake Act II, Bolero, Near the Middle Somewhat Below, Love Wrongs, Peridot, Minkus Gala, Pocahontas Pas, Dracula and The Changing Room, and he has staged numerous classical duets and solos. Beyond Les Ballets Grandiva his creations include The Adventures of Little Red Riding Hood, Peter and the Wolf and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Mr. Trevino also was an original member of Ballet Florida under Marie Hale and danced with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo for ten years. He is currently the artistic advisor for New England Ballet and is the Performance Coordinator and Liaison for Palm Beach Atlantic University.